Review: The Fairy Tale Detectives

By Michael Buckley; Illustrations by Peter Ferguson

Abrams; 2005; 312 pages

Juvenile Fiction; Mystery

Grades: 3-5

ISBN: 978-08-10993-228

Sabine and Daphne are orphan sisters who are sent to live in Ferrysport, New York with their grandmother. There are just two problems: they thought that their grandmother was dead, and this old lady seems to think that fairy tales are real.

My Thoughts:
This book has a great premise: kid detectives in a modern world populated by fairy tale creatures. Also, the incorporation of the Grimm brothers as historians and not mere writers is inspired. The only problem was its execution. The story is uneven. It starts out feeling like the Lemony Snicket books about downtrodden and persecuted orphans. Then it moves to a fractured fairy tale from Rocky and Bullwinkle. It ends with a Benedict Arnold moment and a Bobbsey Twins resolution.

The book itself was well-written. The prose was nice. However the storyline was so uneven and convoluted that the text itself could not redeem it. The illustrations were well done though. The pictures were scattered throughout, but were vague enough and rare enough that readers can still rely on their own imaginations. I would recommend this book to readers who are fairytale fans, or children who enjoy mysteries that are fairly predictable. I would not recommend it to reluctant readers.

The Thoughts of Others:
Booklist published a review by Gillian Engberg in 2005. Engberg had a apathetic reaction to the book. She felt that the"novel gets bogged down in labored world building and sometimes stilted prose." She thought that over all it was redundant and derivative, although the characters would pull fans.

Sharon Grover, in 2006, reviewed the book for School Library Journal. She agreed with Engberg that "readers well grounded in their fairy tales will get the most pleasure from recognizing the characters." She also pointed out that the author does a good job of inserting vocabulary lessons.

Review: Golem

By: David Wisniewski

Clarion Books; 1996; 32 pages

Picture Book; Caldecott Winner

Grades: 1-4

ISBN: 978-0618894246

A re-telling of the story of Rabbi Loew and how the Golem he created saved the Jews of medieval Prague from persecution and annihilation.

My Thoughts:
My first impression of this book was one of awe. I have made snowflakes before, I know how difficult paper cutting is. The detail and impact of the illustrations is awe-inspiring. I kept looking at the pictures and thinking about how much Wisniewski had to plan out each page...and wondering how many mistakes he had to discard. On the merits of its illustrations, I agree wholeheartedly with this book receiving the Caldecott Medal. But, then I turned to the text.

The Golem legend is a difficult one for children. The reason for the Golem's creation is disturbing, how the Golem goes about protecting the Prague Jews is violent, and the destruction of the Golem at the end is unsettling. Joseph is shown to be very child-like in his wonder and view of the surrounding world. I would have a hard time explaining to kids why he is not rewarded for his help, but rather is destroyed. (His pleadings to live are heart-wrenching.) Because of this, I do not recommend this book for a younger audience. I can think of a few situations where it would work though: introducing older kids to the topics of persecution (before discussing the Inquisition or even the Holocaust...especially with the historical note at the end, it is a good way to discuss the historical oppression of Jews.), or in an older student unit on legend, or religion, or Prague.

The Thoughts of Others:

Publisher's Weekly emphasized the beauty and the intricacy of the illustrations, justifying its Caldecott. However, they also point out, albeit positively that Wisniewski "emphasizes the Golem's humanity and the problems with his existence [and] allows for its historical and emotional complexity." They also appreciated the historical endnote.

Common Sense Media, a group who reviews books for families, was impressed by the illustrations, but felt that Wisniewski's book might be frightening or distressing to younger readers. In the end, they pointed out that readers who could handle the story matter would actually be better served byBashevis Singer's version of the tale, also entitled The Golem.

Maid Marian finally Made

I recorded (many moons ago) an online storytelling session that included me telling one of my Robin Hood stories. This was intended to count as one of my stories in front of a live audience. The problem was that I was the last story told in a storytelling/chat session that lasted nearly an hour. Also, if the viewer was not a UW student, I couldn't figure out how to get the story onto my blog.

I have been meaning to rerecord the audio, resync it to the powerpoint, and upload it here to the blog with a link to the original live telling. But I kept putting it off.

Finally, tonight, I had a great idea...why not test out my new video camera's voice recorder? I went to the original live session, recorded the audio while it played on my computer, imported it into Window's movie maker...along with the images from the powerpoint, saved it as a movie, and uploaded it onto Vimeo.

I prefer this method to using pointecast, because I don't have to use up space on my UW account. Also, vimeo will let me embed the video without having to link to it. Yay!

So, the video is posted to the left. It is an oral adaptation of a literary adaptation that I wrote of a historical/traditional Robin Hood ballad for my Honor's Capstone as an undergrad. The only major changes from the written version have to do with point of view and length. Originally I had the story written out as first person narrative.

I have put a link up to a very good resource: The Robin Hood Project. It is an online compendium of almost every extant Robin Hood legend...many in middle english. I also highly recommend the Howard Pyle version of Robin Hood...it is a classic, and a good introduction to the legend.